Poem

Tal Nitzán

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Original language

I REMEMBER ETTY HILLESUM

Did she still whisper
“Why anticipate trouble”
when transported from Westerbork
to Auschwitz in Wagon Number 12,
“They should be exterminated like fleas,
those petty fears of the future”
as her future rushed towards her
to exterminate her?
Maybe I should pause, retreat
or at least recite
“Why anticipate joy”
as I hurry past the yellow squares of life
that once were far and sealed
and tonight open towards me
to let me in and out as I wish
while a silly hope for happiness
sways like a jug, too large,
on my head

© Translation: 2011, Tal Nitzán and Vivian Eden

Citations from An Interrupted Life: The Diaries and Letters of Etty Hillesum 1941–1943, New York, Pantheon Books, 1984

I REMEMBER ETTY HILLESUM

© 2002, Tal Nitzan
From: Domestica
Publisher: Am Oved, Tel Aviv

חיים כרותים, יומנה של אתי הילסום 1943-1941,כתר, ירושלים, 1985

Tal Nitzán

Tal Nitzán

Tal Nitzán is an award-winning poet, editor and a major Israeli translator of Hispanic literature. Born in Jaffa, Israel, of Argentine descent, she has lived in Buenos Aires, Bogota and New York, and now lives in Tel Aviv. Nitzán has translated over 70 books into Hebrew, mainly from Spanish, including two anthologies of Latin American poetry, and adapted a Hebrew version of Don Quixote for youn...

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Poems of Tal Nitzán

AFTERNOON AND A LITTLE GIRL

GRACE

MOUNTAIN HIGH

HIT

I REMEMBER ETTY HILLESUM

A CART WITH A MARE

THE CANARY

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I REMEMBER ETTY HILLESUM

Did she still whisper
“Why anticipate trouble”
when transported from Westerbork
to Auschwitz in Wagon Number 12,
“They should be exterminated like fleas,
those petty fears of the future”
as her future rushed towards her
to exterminate her?
Maybe I should pause, retreat
or at least recite
“Why anticipate joy”
as I hurry past the yellow squares of life
that once were far and sealed
and tonight open towards me
to let me in and out as I wish
while a silly hope for happiness
sways like a jug, too large,
on my head

© 2011, Tal Nitzán and Vivian Eden
From: Domestica

Citations from An Interrupted Life: The Diaries and Letters of Etty Hillesum 1941–1943, New York, Pantheon Books, 1984

I REMEMBER ETTY HILLESUM

Did she still whisper
“Why anticipate trouble”
when transported from Westerbork
to Auschwitz in Wagon Number 12,
“They should be exterminated like fleas,
those petty fears of the future”
as her future rushed towards her
to exterminate her?
Maybe I should pause, retreat
or at least recite
“Why anticipate joy”
as I hurry past the yellow squares of life
that once were far and sealed
and tonight open towards me
to let me in and out as I wish
while a silly hope for happiness
sways like a jug, too large,
on my head

© 2011, Tal Nitzán and Vivian Eden

Citations from An Interrupted Life: The Diaries and Letters of Etty Hillesum 1941–1943, New York, Pantheon Books, 1984

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